While the big question seems to be, “What did Obama know and when did he know it?” with regards to the corruption of Illinois Governor Rod Blogojevich, I haven’t yet seen the same question asked about his Lt. Governor Pat Quinn.  Of course, I’ve only started my reading for the day, so it could come up somewhere. I’ll update if it does.

Quinn is, of course, the man who would take over from Blago should he step aside, resign, or be impeached.  Yet, surely Quinn must have had some kind of knowledge of the Governor’s activities, even if not an active involvement in them, right?  Don’t be so quick to judge.

The story of a governor resigning after using his office to try and make himself some big profits or get kickbacks in not unfamiliar to me or the residents of Connecticut.  Nor is the “what did the Lt. Governor know?” question.

On July 1, 2004, my state’s governor, John Rowland resigned after being accused of getting free work done on his cottage, selling a Washington, D.C. condo at an inflated price, receiving gifts from subordinates, and taking part in a company before they got state contracts.  Rowland was convicted in 2005.

The immediate question many people had was what did Jodi Rell (his Lt. Gov) know?  Rell worked a floor down from him after all.  Pretty quickly, though, the consensus was that she knew nothing and had not been involved.  She took over, got the highest approval ratings any Connecticut governor has ever had, and pretty handily won the office on her own merits in 2006.  She still enjoys relatively high approval ratings (she remains to be an enigma despite other Republicans getting voted out here).

The point is that unless there’s some evidence that Quinn, or any other politician knew something, or was involved, the benefit of the doubt must be given.  At least until such time that something comes up.